Yesterday German Chancellor Angela Merkel told industry that there is no return to the kind of energy policy that existed before the global warming debate. With that, the "national energy summit" of the German government and industry in Berlin, ended in the foreseeable disaster: Merkel's line was that "climate protection is and will remain an integral part of our national energy policy," that there could "not be business as usual" and definitely "no return to the era before"  implying no return to nuclear power.

Merkel wants to stick to the radical European Union target—courtesy of the green oligarchs behind Al Gore and their network of locust funds—of reducing CO2 emissions by 40 percent by 2020, as compared to 1990, which means that Germany would have to reduce by another 30 percent by 2020. The main emphasis in German energy policy, she insisted, would be on energy-saving measures, through "energy efficiency." The agreement which the German government and the industry signed in 2000, for an exit from nuclear technology by 2021, will stay in place, Merkel said, and alternate energies research, notably the "clean coal" (carbon separation and storage) should get funding in the range of several hundred million euros annually.

The three-hour summit did not agree on any details, otherwise, these will be presented in August, as a mid-term energy policy platform of the government  and that will, as Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said at the summit, a conglomerate of "many small steps in many areas."

Merkel's statements at the summit were in line with the draft for a new party policy platform of her own Christian Democrats, published on June 2, on the eve of the energy summit. Since all other political parties are already on a green agenda, this leaves the LaRouche party BueSo the only one to campaign for nuclear technology, in Germany.

Industry (in particular steel, chemical, coal mining, power) criticized the summit, as "too unrealistic" about the emissions reduction targets. Juergen Thumann, chairman of the industry association BDI, said the Merkel course was "like driving a car at high speed without safety belts available." Harry Roels, CEO of the power producer RWE, said the bill would largely be paid by private consumers who would have to pay higher prices for energy and for products.

As far as is known, however, none of the industry people attending the summit made any proposal for a return to nuclear power, containing themselves instead, in calling for the extension of licenses for the existing 17 nuclear power plants in Germany by another 10 or 20 years.